Darkness Rises
Darkness Rises is the twenty-first episode of the eighth season of Once Upon a Time, and the 176th episode overall. It was preceded by Invitation and followed by Find the Light. Plot Past Carabosse and her sister the Black Fairy are separated at birth; Carabosse becomes an orphan. She becomes vengeful on her parents for abandoning her, unaware of the Black Fairy’s existence. As an adult, Carabosse learns of the Dark One, and plans on obtaining its powers to achieve power and find everyone who wronged her. Using magic for the first time, she tracks down the darkest soul nearest to her, expecting to find the Dark One; however, she comes face-to-face with the Black Fairy. The fairy uses her powers to prove that the two are sisters, and considers giving Carabosse magic too. Together, they team up to find the Dark One. They locate the current Dark One; alias The Horned King. The sisters attempt to kill him with the Dark One Dagger but he is too powerful. After magically ripping his skin off, the Black Fairy selfishly flees, leaving Carabosse. Carabosse’s heart completely blackens, and she begins dying. She forges the Fountain of Youth from the tree sap (blood) of Merlin and becomes an immortal fairy. Destroying the Fountain, she becomes so corrupted that evil will not kill her; it will power her. She tries for a baby with unwilling men; she abandons her first child Maleficent due to being human. Shortly after, she is able to give birth to a wicked fairy; her son Caradoc. Carabosse finds out that she is a legendary villain, with thousands of people who want her dead. She decides to try and take over every realm that ever existed. At some point, Carabosse immunes herself to Light Magic; her weakness is revealed as magic from a hero that once was dark. Carabosse dismisses these ‘heroes’ as nonexistent, and if not, extremely hard to come by. Present Carabosse activates her Black Hole with the help of Wish Regina giving a sacrifice: Wish Zelena. As the Black Hole powers up, a vortex in the sky of the United Realms brings upon an endless thunderstorm of ‘evil’. Meanwhile, Regina is up in the early hours of the morning working, when she notices the storm. She goes outside to find it dampens light magic. An emergency meeting is held at the Loft that now belongs to Diaval and Lanval; Regina explains to Zelena, Diaval, Lanval, Alice, Robin, Roger, Drizella and Anastasia that the apocalypse is here and they have to clue on how to stop it. Maui enters and reveals that, while he was a slave to Wish Regina, he found out that Carabosse should be weakened by an ally’s betrayal. The Royal Team must turn Wish Regina against Carabosse. Carabosse learns from Wish Regina and Caradoc that the Dark One no longer exists; this means that darkness has been lurking around town, untethered. They can use it to speed up the Black Hole. Moana is summoned; still mad at Maui, she explains to the heroes that she no longer has magic to try and bring back the dagger. When they fail to ask Moana to try, Regina sparks an argument between Maui and Moana, both former Dark Ones. The overwhelming power summons the dagger. The group plan on using the dagger to summon the darkness before Carabosse finds it. Regina uses some blood she previously stole from Carabosse to form the Royal Hat, a successor to the Sorcerer's Hat. Hopefully, the hat will contain the darkness, and the dagger will control the Royal Hat. Zelena, Maui and Moana go outside with a magical force field to contain the darkness. They face dozens of Black Vampires sent to stop them. While they save many people, they are eventually bitten and become vampires themselves. Meanwhile, Regina and Diaval concoct an admittedly cruel plan. Regina uses a dreamcatcher to show Diaval one of her memories. Simultaneously, Carabosse, Caradoc and Wish Regina are absording the darkness from the United Realms when someone teleports before them. It’s Regina, who has a knife at who appears to be Daniel’s throat. It doesn’t take much for Wish Regina to abandon her power for Daniel. She runs to him, and Regina rips her heart out and threatens to kill her. Daniel is revealed as Diaval, who had shapeshifted; Carabosse insists that they let Wish Regina die. However, to Regina and Diaval’s horror, the betrayal doesn’t weaken the villains at all. Characters (in order of appearance) * Carabosse * Caradoc * Evil Queen (Wish Realm) * Wicked Witch of the West (Wish Realm) (death, latest appearance) * Black Fairy * Evil Queen * Wicked Witch of the West * Diaval * Lanval * Alice Jones * Robin Hood, Jr. * Roger Radcliffe * Drizella Tremaine * Anastasia Tremaine * Maui * Horned King (only appearance) * Moana * Merlin (tree) * Black Vampires (first appearance) * Daniel Colter (impersonated) Timeline * The past events where Carabosse and the Black Fairy are born take place after Merlin becomes a tree in Dreamcatcher and before Cyrus becomes a genie in Dirty Little Secrets. * The past events where Carabosse and the Black Fairy meet as adults and Carabosse becomes immortal take place after the Black Fairy is banished in The Black Fairy and before Malcolm abandons Rumplestiltskin in Think Lovely Thoughts. * The past events where Maleficent is born is also shown in The Mistress of Evil, and takes place after Jiminy becomes a cricket in That Still Small Voice and before Maleficent is a child in The Mistress of Evil. Category:Once Upon a Time episodes Category:Season 8 episodes